Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor, wife of the Union Minister Shashi Tharoor was found dead at a Delhi hotel late Friday night.
Her death came just a day after the couple issued a joint statement claiming to be ‘happily married’. The statement was issued in wake of 52 year old Sunanda posting a series of tweets on her husband’s twitter handle claiming that a Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar was stalking her husband.
Sunanda, who accused Tarar of being an ISI agent, even talked about getting a divorce from her husband. While the controversy remained much talked about throughout the virtual world Mrs Tharoor had issued a statement maintaining that she was feeling unwell and sought privacy from the media.
Mrs Tharoor, a Kashmiri, belonged to a family of Landlords and Army officers from Bomai village in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district. Her father was Lt Col Retired P N Dass, who retired from the Army in 1983. She has two brothers, one of whom works for a bank; the other is in the Army. She is a graduate from Government College for Women, Srinagar.
Her marriage to Tharoor in 2010 was her third. Her first husband was Sanjay Raina, a Kashmiri. After that marriage ended in a divorce, she married a Kerala businessman Sujith Menon who then died in a road accident in 1997. She has a 21-year-old son, Shiv Menon, from her second marriage.
Soon as the news of Sunanda’s death came out, a senior New Delhi based TV anchor claimed that she had talked to Sunanda earlier in the day and an incoherent Mrs Tharoor told her that she needs to talk to the media.
“I am putting these facts out because I believe this will be helpful during the course of the investigation.” Said the senior TV anchor.
While there was no word from the police people across the spectrum expressed shock through social media on the untimely death of the Union Minister’s wife.
The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah expressed his shock on the micro blogging site, Twitter.
“Terrible, terrible news coming in about Sunanda Tharoor.” Omar wrote on his Twitter handle.
Some people on the social networking sites however expressed concerns about foul play in Sunanda’s death. Mashu Kishwar, a noted academician, known for her proximity to the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), wrote on her Twitter handle that Sunanda was eliminated for she knew too much.
Tharoor had to resign from his first ministerial post in 2010 after allegations that Sunanda had been given a free stake in the Kerala team in the money-spinning Indian Premier League (IPL).
– Suhail A Shah
